Show Reviews

wow 4 other people at this show. I was a Junior at Carleton that year and I lived in Evans, the dorm with the Cave in the basement. Was urged by someone I just met from Vermont who played me some tapes to check them out. I can't say I remember a whole lot from that show given the lax attitude at the Cave for various indulgences. I do remember Fishman playing Vacuum and Trey and Mike on small trampolines. For some reason it seemed perfectly normal at the time. I don't think there could have been more than 60-80 people there max. I was dancing with lots of room a few feet from the very tiny stage. Wish I could go back and relive that night. I give it 4 stars just because I had no idea that 23 years later I'd have watched this band evolve and grow and shared in so much of the magic.

Clearly energized from a few days off and a few days of driving through the beautiful northwestern United States, this show opens with a spirited Runaway Jim/Cavern/Paul and Silas combo. Trey is on fire out of the gate, showing off a little machine gun action in the aforementioned Paul and Silas, a must-hear for fans of PhishGrass. The band then shows off their "youthful exuberance" in a solid, yet somewhat irritating Tweezer.

Following this promising start, the band runs through a bunch of standard versions of (at the time) standard tunes: Magilla, Dinner, Bouncing, Foam (actually pretty sloppy and cuts out halfway through), and a pretty hideous version of Carolina. A solid YEM gives way to a fine Coil and a smoking Chalk Dust, although I am still not a fan of the "soft start" that precedes the early version of CDT.

I didn't think much of the Jam Chart Reba from this show, further proving that I have terrible taste in Rebas. The rest of the show is pretty ordinary, but it's got some weird song selection and the entirety of set 2 doesn't really fit together as a result. It's amazing to go back and listen to these older shows now that Phish really knows how to make a set flow.

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